Ernest S. Frerichs Program for Albright Fellows
The Frerichs Program for Albright Fellows is an international fellowship program providing funding, resources, and community to more than 50 scholars annually, primarily from North America, Europe, China, and the Middle East. The purpose of the program is to give scholars of the Near East an opportunity to engage firsthand the world that they study; to provide a formal framework for that engagement in the form of study tours and workshops; to provide resources for study and research; and to facilitate dialogue between scholars of diverse disciplines, career rank, and national and ethnic backgrounds.
The Albright provides a wide range of programs and resources for doctoral and post-doctoral research. Programming includes an annual series of lectures, workshops, conferences, field trips, and social events. Resources include an extensive research library, access to physical and digital resources both on campus and at neighboring institutions, collaborative research spaces, laboratories, storage facilities, community spaces, and living accommodations.
Field trips are one of the oldest and most storied activities at the Institute. In the early 20th century, these trips were nothing short of explorations, often resulting in field work, such as surveys of newly identified sites. Today’s fellows follow in this tradition, experiencing first hand the subjects and sites of their research. Though the trips nowadays are less about exploring, the physical visits often generate innovative ideas that fellows incorporate into their research. Field trips are often led by scholars and experts who have worked at the sites; in many cases, these are fellows or alumni. Because of its long relationship with scholarship in the region, the Albright has unique access to these types of
guides. Trips are customized according to the fellows’ needs and interests.
The Albright maintains ongoing cooperative relationships with the École Biblique, the British, German and Spanish Schools of Archaeology, the Hebrew Union College-Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, the Hebrew University, the Shariah Court Museum and Library at the Haram al-Sharif, and the Rockefeller Museum, as well as with the other American overseas research centers in Amman, Nicosia, and Cairo. Other notable resources nearby include the National Library of Israel, the Palestine Museum, the headquarters and storerooms of the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the Israel Museum. This scholarly grouping of museums, universities, sites, collections and institutions comprises one of the most vital concentrations of human, bibliographic and artifact resources in the field of Near Eastern studies to be found anywhere in the world; all are available to Albright fellows who receive assistance from the Institute’s staff in finding, traveling to and obtaining access to them.
